I use both pickups wide open, tone cut about halfway and run through a compressor. I poke through and sit in our mix just fine.
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Do you use both pickups on fully?
Then don't. Back off one of them a bit, until you get the presence back: with both pickups on you're likely losing too much in the midrange, and it sounds like you need that in the context of your band.
Crank the mids and roll off the lows a bit. I’ve cut through with some fairly underpowered amps this way. I did use s Jazz at one point, too.
I have 5 american deluxe jazz 5 strings and gig with them every week. I always have both pickups full volume as this is my sound.
In stock form, definitely NO, to me it won't cut through. I loved the tone at home but once on stage, it was just lost.
Then the best upgrade i did to them... i installed an audere jazz preamp.
With this preamp, i boost the low mids just a tad... and the high mids a lil more than the low mids and everything else i leave flat.
^^ This slices through like butter and all notes from the B string to the G string have boom and punch. I no longer fight any band i play in. Perfect tone.
In stock form, definitely NO, to me it won't cut through. I loved the tone at home but once on stage, it was just lost.
Then the best upgrade i did to them... i installed an audere jazz preamp.
With this preamp, i boost the low mids just a tad... and the high mids a lil more than the low mids and everything else i leave flat.
^^ This slices through like butter and all notes from the B string to the G string have boom and punch. I no longer fight any band i play in. Perfect tone.
I used to mix records for a living, and if I ever needed a jazz bass to cut through a denser mix I would achieve that by using saturation and very mild distortion instead of EQ. Usually some subtractive EQ on the guitars in the low mids can help this situation quite a bit, but you might not be that friendly with your guitarists 
For live situations I highly recommend a pedal like the Darkglass VMT or any other pedal that saturates the low mids. In the context of the band you will never hear any distortion, it will still sound very clean but you'll get more punch.
And like others have said, try favoring one pickup or the other by a quarter turn or more, always helps!
For live situations I highly recommend a pedal like the Darkglass VMT or any other pedal that saturates the low mids. In the context of the band you will never hear any distortion, it will still sound very clean but you'll get more punch.
And like others have said, try favoring one pickup or the other by a quarter turn or more, always helps!
That sounds like trying to turn a jazz into a precision.
I just start with a precision.
First thing to do is not run both pups equally.
Smooth_bass88
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This is what Jaco did (favor the bridge PU) and he was in front of every mix.
Having a Jazz with 70's pickup spacing works really well until the weather changes, which warps the coils and requires a truss rod adjustment, which will lower the strings and cause the magnetic pull to interfere with the inherent resonance of the strings, depending on whether they are reverse wrapped or forward wrapped and whether the month they were wrapped in had thirty or thirty-one days, and if it was February whether it was a leap year. This of course interacts with the tilt of the Earth's axis and the time of year, which determines how much solar energy was present when they created the core wire, which influences the degree of angularity of the hex core wire, or the purity of the circle of circular core wire. This of course has a direct correlation on whether the output frequency of the pickups reacts with the tone capacitor, along with the length of the cable you're using and also the guage of the extension cord your amp uses to plug into the wall, along with whether you're using oxygen-free speaker cable and/or if you are plugging the directional cable in in the right direction. Ultimately you may require a slight tweak at 600 hz or 800 hz, depending on whether your bass has an ash body or an alder body. If it has a sunburst finish you may find that it needs a further tweak at around 2.5K, unless it was sprayed with nitro in which case the degree of flecking will determine whether you need +3db at 2.5k or +2.5db at 2.8k.
All this of course may be rendered moot by the room you're playing in and the overall mix, which may change at random depending on the dimension of the room, relative humidity, and the whims of the other people in the band.
All this of course may be rendered moot by the room you're playing in and the overall mix, which may change at random depending on the dimension of the room, relative humidity, and the whims of the other people in the band.
Oh yeah. For me, I just love the simplicity and efficiency of my P!That sounds like trying to turn a jazz into a precision.
And wear pants, not shorts. That will help. :>) ; )
What exactly does that mean? I’m not trying to be a smartass. But what’s not happening for you with a JB? What type of music are you playing that the bass is completely disappearing?
JBs can be pretty monstrous sounding if they need be. For example:
Boost your low mids and leave bass, upper mids, and treble at flat. Your EQ should not look like a flock of geese flying south. The V EQ formation went out in the 70s
This is an odd read to me, because I've only ever found the opposite to be true from my playing experience. J basses always punch through and P basses always sit in the mix beefing everything up. Just in general.
There's some great gear advice in here gear wise already, but how do you tend to attack the strings? I dig in pretty hard with my plucking hand and slap quite a bit, so the J is right in my wheelhouse. I'm not really every in a situation where I'm lightly plucking the strings, could that have something to do with it, OP? I don't know how you play so I'm just spit-balling.
The advice of slightly backing off one pickup always works for me, coupled with slightly rolling off some highs (70s pickup spacing). Mine would still be “humbucking” with the pickup slightly backed off. My usual way was backing off the bridge. I never run both wide open, too much scoop.
Well, you overlooked the 11 year sunspot cycle which probably does come into play if you have a genuine tort pick guard.
Do you notice the moment when the jazz bass kicks in?
